0014 p.m. And I call this meeting of the Elgen Independent School District to order. I'd like to announce there is a quorum of the board present that this meeting has been due to call and posted in the time and matter required follow. Next item on the agenda will recite the pledge of allegiance. >> Good evening. Tonight the pledge of allegiance is being recite pledge of allegiance is being recited by students from Elgen Intermediate School. And so I'd like to welcome Principal Randy Mat. >> Thank you guys. I appreciate it. These are our library ambassadors. Oh, you guys come here. You're going to introduce yourself. We're working on public speaking as well. And so they're going to introduce themselves and then walk on stage. >> Hi, I'm Caroline Canon. >> I'm Nasuli. >> Hi, I'm Dawson
002Smith. Hi, I'm Isabelle Neos. I'm Bailey Lara. Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, with liberty, justice for all. Well, good evening everyone. My name is Emily White. I'm the communications coordinator for um Elgen Independent School District and I'm here substituting for uh Mr. Al Rodriguez. Oh. >> Oh, I'm sorry. All right. Thank you. Uh, next item on the agenda is public comment and there is none. Next item. At this time, we'll pause this portion of the meeting to move into the public hearing for our school first report. During this public hearing portion of the meeting, we will entertain questions from anyone in attendance. >> Good evening, President Mitchell, Dr. Ritter, members of the board. I'm Clark Mley, uh, Elgenist
003D's chief financial officer, and I'm pleased tonight to present a presentation over the school first report. Here we go. Um, so school first, hold on, I forgot I have control of the clicker now. I'm not counting on her, so I can just go. Um, first report stands for uh school financial integrity rating system of Texas. So you will hear it referred to as the first report. Um, under school first, every Texas school district is required to prepare and distribute an annual financial management report that includes certain information along with a public hearing to present the report. So the presentation tonight, we'll review the report and the report itself will be posted to Elgenist D's website later this week. So just in general how we did here, we have Elgen ISD received a first rating of
004B which is above standard achievement. We received 88 out of a possible 100 points. And just for reference, the 2025 school first rating is based on 2023 2024 fiscal year data. So, the school first report is made up of 21 indicators and I'm going to go through those 21 indicators with you this evening. I'll go a little bit deeper into a couple of the indicators and then there's some disclosures that we'll also present tonight. So, it's a bit misleading. It says 21. There are only 20 actually because one of the indicators isn't evaluated this year. So, here we have the first five. Um, some of these are simple. Our audit was submitted on time. Yes. Passed. Uh we received an unmodified audit opinion. That's a yes. We're compliant with debt agreement payments. Um and timely
005payments to government agencies, teacher retirement service, Texas Workforce Commission, IRS, etc. All those were made in time. And our total net position is greater than zero. So that is also a yes. Moving on, we have average change in fund balance over three years, less than 25% decrease or current year's fund balance exceeds 75 days of operational expenditures. This is a yes. Uh cash investments on hand is greater than 90 days. That's a yes. Elgenized D has roughly 207 days of cash on hand. So in this indicator, we receive 10 out of 10 points. Um, our current assets to current liabilities ratio is sufficient to cover short-term debt. This is a yes. Our ratio is 13.6202 and it must be greater than three to receive the maximum 10 points which we did receive. Our general fund
006revenues should be greater than total expenses. Of course, unless you do a facility acquisition or construction, or if not, your number of days of cash on hand should be greater than 60, which we already established. So, we received all 10 points available in this indicator. Number 10 is the one that is not being evaluated this year, but it has to do with the did the school district average less than 10% variance when comparing budgeted revenues to actual revenues for the last three fiscal years. Um, I did a little research into this. So, they do change how they use the different indicators. So, this isn't one that they're evaluating for any school districts, but it will probably still be on there for another two or three years because they don't update it. but every five years.
007So that's that's kind of why that one is still there. Um the next one is long-term liabilities to total assets is sufficient to support long-term solveny. This is a yes and Elani Elgeniz earned 10 out of 10 points. For 12, I have a bunch of verbiage, but this is one I want to go over later in the presentation. So this has to do with our debt service per $100 of assessed property value is sufficient to support future debt service. So Elgen Steve's ratio was 11.6824 and that was between the 11.5 and the 13.5 which earned a score of two out of 10. So in order to have scored four points our ratio needed to be between 10 and 11.5. So we were824 over this to get those extra points there. This indicator though is a
008difficult one to have any impact on when a district is experiencing the growth that Elgeniz is. the ratios get impacted by the issuance of bonds approved in 2021 and 2024 as well as property value growth and homestead ex exemption increases. So it's just a tough one that we can impact as we're going through the growth that we are and preparing for the future. So 13 is another one I want to discuss later. Um it's the administrative cost ratio. Is it less than the threshold ratio? So last year we received six out of 10 points for this indicator and we've received six out of 10 points for this year as well. Um and I just kind of want to touch on it because it's one of the indicators that I feel we can get some points
009back um as we move into the future. So moving on, the district did not have a 15% decline in studentto staff ratio over three years. We received 10 out of 10 points. our our ADA which is average daily attendance with is within the laotted range of the district's bienial pupil projection submitted to TEA um yes we receive five out of the five points available here PE's data comparison to audit report is less than 3% errors yes we we were good there um our audit report free of material weakness and internal controls and free from substantial doubt about ongoing concern yes we were good there audit report was free of material non-compliance. That's yes, we received 10 out of 10 points. Our required financial information is posted to the website. We received all points available. And
010did the school board discuss changes impact to local, state, and federal funding at board meetings within 120 20 days before adopting the budget? That's also a yes. And on 21, it's a no, but that's what we wanted. It's did the district receive an adjusted repayment schedule. So, we passed that indicator as well. So now I just want to go back to indicators 12 and 13. So you can see the top is our overall score for 2024 was a 92. Um 2025 as I mentioned is an 88. The two or the only indicator where any changes happened between the two years was in indicator 12. um moving from six to two and then in indicator 13 I have up there just because we didn't lose or gain but there's some things we want to touch on
011in that domain or that indicator sorry so as I mentioned before growing districts have little control over this ratio is there's a need to issue debt to fund and build schools add technology purchase buses basically get ready for the things we need to do to to provide for our students um as we issue the remainder of the 2024 bond the total future debt will increase and the property values used in 2425 formula are based on 100,000 homestead exemption and then next year we know that they'll be we'll be looking at the 140,000 homestead exemption. So that's going to be another area that we're going to have to work through. So for indicator 13, it's your administrative cost ratio. So I'm going to talk about some things and then I have the actual test to kind
012of show you what I'm what I'm speaking on. But as as we know we are look well the 2526 so based on 2425 data has additional budgets built in to function 11 function 12 function 31 because we opened Harvest Ridge Elementary. So what we're looking at now is based on those our new campuses not being open already. So that's just something to bear in mind. this indicator will improve because now we have campuses that opens next year and then the following year the same thing will occur whenever we get to look at our data with Trinity Ranch open as well. So something to mention that we are looking at expenses and we're reviewing those to correctly reclassify them from function 21 to other more appropriate educational function codes. So, we're still in the process of
013reviewing these and there may be some additional adjustments that we bring to you guys for budget amendments throughout the rest of this year. Um, one thing to note this last bullet and I'll go into it again, but we moved into the 5,000 to 10,000 category for average daily attendance. So, that's something that we have to be mindful of as we grow. Your your your thresholds change. So, it's important to kind of note that that's where we fall right now. So on this one, we were we were only 0.00058 above the threshold. That would have put us at eight points. And also our average daily attendance, if it had been below 5,000, we would have also received eight points. Our ADA was 5,12. So only 13 students bumped us into that next category. So this one
014is what if our ratio had been slightly lower. You can see that it's one 12.1258. Um, and we're in the category it's circled. If you move over from 5,000 to9.99, had we fallen between the 0.100 and the 0.1250, we would have received those eight that 8 point instead of the six. So, every dollar counts as far as how we're looking at those to make sure that we reclassify them as we've moved into this new um ADA bracket. And then just to show had we had 13 fewer students, we would have been well within the range to have received the eight points in this indicator. Um I just I just put this slide to kind of put some things into perspective. This puts uh 65 districts in the region 13 Austin area up and you can
015kind of see where everyone falls with their administrative cost expenditures. So in the second verbiage up there, you can see that Elgen is number 25 in terms of total expenditures for general administration. Just know that this is comparing us to districts that are much smaller than Elgen and then districts that are much larger than Elgen in that part of it. But you can see that we spend $457 per student for this function compared to $625, which is the average. So we're ranked 36 in terms of expenditures per student here. So, not at the top, not at the bottom, but it's just one of those that you have to pay attention to as we move into the future and continue growing. So, the disclosures, um, the superintendent's current employment contract is one that needs to be
016included in the full report and copies, like I said, of the full report will be available at the administration building and also posted online on the on the business office web page. um a summary schedule for the 23 24 fiscal year of total reimbursements received by the superintendent and each board member shall also be reported that will be included in that report. Um any outside compensation received by the superintendent for consulting or other services, there were none. Any gifts received of $250 or more by executive offer officers and board members, again there were none. and any dollar amount of business transaction between the district and board members in the year 23 24 and there were none. So just the future what we're looking to while yes an A rating is what we always strive for.
017Uh we have been reassured by financial adviserss that this year's above standard rating doesn't make our district less financially attractive or diminish our capacity for future issuances of bonds. And we're excited that we've identified some areas with the potential for positive impact for next year's rating. Focus on the indicators we can control, predominantly the administrative cost ratio, ensure expense coding is accurate in accordance with TEA definitions, and then monitor any other indicators to see when or if we might start losing point values there. And we want to continue to do what's best for Elgen ISD, our students, and our families. That concludes my presentation. I'm happy to answer any questions. Are there any questions for anyone? >> Thank you. So, this concludes the public hearing portion of this meeting and so we are back to
018session and regular order for our reg. Thank you. Uh item being asked to approve the minutes of October 20, 2025 board workshop in regular meetings and the November 4th, 2025 board workshop. Just a quick note, as it relates to our voting now, we know that the rules have changed somewhat and uh so not only do they know want to know who vote, but they want the names of how each person voted. So to make that easier, we're just going to ask everyone to to raise their hands. So with that said, uh there motion to approve those minutes. >> I move motion by Mr. Moss, second by Mr. Barker. Any question? All in favor of said motion raise your hand. Any opposers? Motion passes 70. Thank you. Next item, recognition. So, >> thank you. I was
019a little over excited to come up and talk to you. >> Well, again, good evening um President Mitchell, Superintendent Ritter, and members of uh board of trustees and cabinet. I'm Emily White, as I told you earlier. I'm the communications coordinator here, and I am stepping in for um Mr. Rodriguez, who could not be here this evening. This evening we have a few recognitions we'd like to share with you and we're excited about that. And so we'll begin tonight with Miss Color. >> Good evening, President Mitchell, Dr. Ritter, School Board of Trustees. My name is Allison Keller, director of fine arts and advanced academics. And tonight, it is my pleasure. I want to introduce Miss Megan Buren who is our honores teacher to talk a little bit about her special award. Miss Burson. >> Good evening,
020President Mitchell, Dr. Ritter, and members of the Elgen School Board. My name is Megan Buren, and I'm an art teacher at EHS and the proud teacher of Mahala Puit. Thank you for taking the time tonight to honor a very talented young woman. Over the last year and a half, I've had the pleasure of meeting and teaching Mahaley. Mahaley was quiet and reserved during our first meeting and teaching uh together. But over time, she gradually opened up and was willing to listen to suggestions on how to improve her artwork. By the end of her first year, Mahaley had participated in VASE, our UIL for art, and received a rating of a four, the highest rating in our region possible. When we got back, she was already brainstorming ideas for this year's contest. When the opportunity arose
021to submit a work for the Tassa and Tasby show, I did not hesitate to include her work, Soul's Window. Her work was chosen as one of 40 pieces displayed from TE Texas districts. It is an honor to present her and her work to the school board for recognition tonight. Mahaley PR. I'm back. All right. On behalf of the Texas Music Educators Association Executive Board and more than 20,000 TMEA members statewide, it is with great pride that I congratulate Dr. Stormmy Hickman on being named a TMEA distinguished administrator. This designation was created to honor upper level school administrators who have demonstrated exceptional commitment to sustaining and advancing quality music education programs within excuse me within their district. In a time of increasing fiscal pressures and ever growing emphasis on standardized testing, we are especially grateful for
022your steadfast dedication to ensuring that all Elgen ISD students have access to choice, opportunity, and a rich educational experience. On a personal note, Dr. Hickman leads with a calm confidence and authentic presence that immediately puts those who work with her at ease. She is open, collaborative, and genuinely invested in shared success, yet decisive and clear when the moment calls for strong leadership. Her exceptional ability to read the room, to understand people and situations with clarity, and to offer thoughtful guidance has been invaluable. I am deeply appreciative of her unwavering support of all things fine arts and advanced academics. Congratulations, Dr. Hickman. This honor is truly welld deserved. Yeah. >> All right. And now I'm back. As you know, our theme for this year is we're all in this together. And so each month, we are
023honored to present to you a staff member or a team member or a community member who embodies this spirit. The one team, one dream award celebrates those who work work collaborative collaboratively to solve problems, to care for and support others, and to hold high expectations for themselves and our students. Our first honore this evening comes from Harvest Ridge principal Megan Borley who says, "Our Harvest Ridge Elementary PTA president Cherish White truly goes above and beyond to make a lasting difference on our campus and within our community. She leads with a heart, dedication, and volunteering at school events, lending a hand whenever help is needed, and finding meaningful ways to make each teacher and staff member feel valued and heard. Her commitment shines through in everything she does. She's a true multiplier, someone who brings out
024the best in others and amplifies positivity across our school community. Her ability to connect people, inspire teamwork, and show genuine love and care for both staff and students has created an atmosphere of belonging and joy. Her efforts to grow the PTA both at our school and in collaboration with others has strengthened have strengthened our sense of unity and purpose. Through her compassion, leadership, and contagious enthusiasm, she continues to make an incredible impact on everyone she deserves. She serves. At the heart of everything she does is a simple but powerful message, which is we're all in this together. Congratulations to Cherish White. We have a little I'm sorry. Y'all are welcome. Come on, ladies. Okay. Olivia. Okay. Our second honore comes from EES principal Michelle Martinez who tells us, "I'd like to celebrate our community partner,
025Officer Star Lald. We are incredibly grateful for our partnership with Officer Star Lald and the Elgen Police Department. Officer Lal's enthusiasm and dedication to our students truly shine. She joined us for High Five Friday, greeting EES students with smiles and encouragement during morning arrival and even surprised us by bringing stuff animal donations to share with our students. Her generosity doesn't stop there. Officer Lal along with several officers from the Elgen PD joined our campus trunk or treat event to help pass out candy and connect with our families. We truly appreciate her their continued support and commitment to building positive relations with our school community. Thank you, Officer Lassal and the Elgen PD for being shining examples of community partnership and kindness. Congratulations, Officer Lal. I was wondering here. I got a little nervous. And last
026but not least, we have these nominees from Principal Linda Tamez from Booker T. Washington Elementary. These three individuals have come and supported our very green fifth grade team in lesson planning, CFA creation, and tier one instruction, and we so appreciate them. Please congratulate Tammy Franklin, Mary Grim, and Tanya Jeter. I think I think I understand that they could not be here this evening. So, we'll make sure to give their um certificates to their principal. And that is the end of our recognitions for this evening. Thank you. >> Next item, superintendent. >> All right. We have lots of great things that have just been happening all over the district. So many celebrations. Just a fun highlight. There were just too many cute pictures to put up. So, we had to highlight just Halloween and EISD. Now,
027it was on a Friday and I know um maybe there were some benefits to that, but then maybe it was kind of a crazy day, but we liked it being on a Friday. I think next year it might be on a Saturday, which might better. But we had lots of different dress up things and character parades and so much fun. A great day for for spirit and culture building across the district. So, it was a really fun day that everyone participated in. Just lots of lots of great things. Um, our fall recruiting for college and university campus visits um our integral part as we build and recruit teachers and staff and professional staff across the state of Texas. So, these are just some of the places that we're going for fall recruiting. We when you're
028a district that's adding almost 500 students per school year, we're adding throughout the school year. We anticipate more kids coming after the holiday break and we want to have teachers there to greet them. So, we just know we're going to continue to grow classrooms through the year and these are great opportunities for us to go and recruit teachers at job fairs. We also have our own teacher job fair on December the 6. our CTE advisor meeting and comprehensive local needs assessment review. I know that sounds like a lot. It's a mouthful. This was I was able to attend this. Um I know Miss Waltershite was there as a community member and a business owner. This um Maggie Howard, our CTE director, did such a fine job with this. Um we met in our future the
029the homestead which is going to be housing our culinary arts program starting next school year and we already have so many students signed up for this who are taking freshman classes at EHS and then next year they will be moving over to have their coursework there in the lab setting at the homestead that this um and so they got to see a roll out of the plans for the homestead setting and also just so much collaboration looking at data for over several years but just the trends that are following. And one thing that I will say in Elgen ISD, we are really focusing on that the workforce solutions and what we're doing to prepare our kids in this town. What are we doing in our prepare our children for their future? All kinds of opportunities
030and it goes along with one of the the next thing I'm going to talk about here in a minute. Go ahead and switch it to FutureFest. We had future fest at the high school last week and we had over a hundred students and then their parents were there as well. These are our rising ninth graders, our rising freshman, the eighth graders who are currently at the middle school already talking about course selection for next school year as they enter high school. And the focus was what are the opportunities we're providing for our students through these CTE courses, but also we had there we had athletics, we had fine arts, all of the different ways that our kids can be plugged in. And again, it's about the opportunities we are providing for our students because this
031is what keeps kids in school involved, engaged, and successful in what they do academically. But there's so much so much to all of it, not just the academic side. We want to build them completely and so so many programs and opportunities. And it was a great night. But those two events in the past week, it just um just sent chills. I was so excited about both of them and so appreciative to the staff that really really designed those events to be very engaging and just year after year, month after month seeing what we're doing in our district for our students is um really beyond what I see in a lot of places. So I'm so very very proud and thank you all for everything that you're doing with that. Next, um, talking about professional development
032and thanking the board for the days that we have embedded in our calendar. November 7th was a professional learning day for staff. This particular picture was taken. We had a we had a session and it was based on feedback that we had gotten about needs in the district. And that was a session where we had kind of the the frontline folks. We had our front office staff, people who are really the first ones that see our community when people come into campuses or into departments and we were able to provide them some great training about how we serve and what the needs are in our community and how they can be that first person that is those people are experiencing and how we can engage with our community and our parents. It was a such
033a successful session. We got lots of really good feedback from it and uh thanks to our communications department for organizing this as well and just the training that our district does on these days is invaluable. Um, right now we're getting feedback from our teachers and staff about sessions to offer in January for when we get back from the break and they're going to be providing the sessions to each other to hear from peers and to hear from each other and learn from each other as well. So, we're excited about what we're doing professional learning just embedded throughout our um school year. Veterans Day, uh, we want to say thank you to our veterans and are do we have any veterans in the audience? Go ahead and stand up, Mr. Mat, thank you for your service
034right next to the land for your service. Uh we had some phenomenal programs, ceremonies, and just wonderful time to say thank you to our veterans and the sacrifice that they have made. And we honored through the heartfelt tributes that recognize the service and sacrifice of local heroes. our fall sports wrap-up. We had senior night at the football game. Many of you were in attendance and I kept saying over and over is that it was like a magical night. It was wonderful. Mr. Mitchell and I were there on the sidelines. We stood through the whole first half on the track, didn't we? >> Absolutely. >> And it was >> Tell someone about that vehicle. >> He got to ride in the electric vehicle. Um it it was from the beginning to the very end of the
035evening when it Yes. We won the game. It was phenomenal for our kids, but all of our programs that were that were um represented and the students who were seniors with their families there and getting to to walk onto the field. And then at the end of the night, it was a tearjerker because it was senior night wrap up where the kids, all the seniors, they were there in the audience through the game and um so much involvement, engagement throughout the game. It was it was wonderful and so many of our community members there. Then they did their uh senior walk across the field, their last walk across the field as seniors. And so it was really special night and thank you to those administrators who made it such a great special occasion. And it
036really it just it was uh it was really amazing. We also did our band sweethearts, right? And that was so much fun, too. So just an overall phenomenal evening and we just love what we're doing for our seniors. Can't believe it's we're about halfway through the school year. It's hard to believe. So, lots of lots more events for our seniors. Um, I was able to attend with uh Al Rodriguez, our mayor, Elgen, Taylor, Texas with our chamber and other members of our community, city leaders. And this is the annual gathering that brings together business and civic leaders from Mayor, Elgen, and Taylor to explore growth and opportunities within what's been called the opportunity triangle. And we're learning more and more about how this triangle of those three cities is the world leader for some of
037the things like semiconductor development and different workforce development that we're trying to be very specific in those things I talked about about the coursework we're providing for our kids and opportunities we're providing for our kids to have this pipeline for them into these opportunities for them and um with major employers like Tesla, Samsung investing in nearby areas this great deal of additional growth is happening within this opportunity triangle. We're getting the housing for that and other industry is going to start moving in and this is really what is what our growth is based on is what's happening in this opportunity triangle. So more to come on what's happening with this but we were so appreciative of this opportunity ourselves to get together and and learn more about what's happening in our community. So, looking ahead,
038Thanksgiving break. Can't believe it's here, but we have next week our Thanksgiving break. Um, there's some really great things happening kind of in the same time period of uh December the lighted Christmas parade is December 6th, but on the 5th at that e on the evening of the 5th, which is Friday, is the elementary Christmas concert, that annual concert, which is really fun outside. It will be at the stage down at the Veterans Memorial Park. And the chamber is also going to be selling mugs for the cocoa straw which is the next morning and that's a really fun family event as well. Uh the chamber of commerce pa. Yes. On December 6th. Then we also have a great event our first theatrical presentation on our new auditorium at Christmas Carol presented by EHS theater December
0396th and 7th. Are those dates right? >> I thought so. I was like it's the fifth, sixth, and seventh. And on the 5th, um, I'm going to make it to both the concert and get to the to the auditorium for for the Christmas carol. And that will be our first presentation there in our our theatrical presentation in the new auditorium. So, we're excited about that. And Christmas break coming up the 19th through January 4th. Professional learning on the 5th and 6th in January. The first day for students back is the 7th. Looking at enrollment, we're at 6244. It's kind of holding tight right around there, but we're expecting a big bump after the holidays. And um lastly, and I hate to have to say this, but goodbye to Brian Paige. Brian Paige has been um
040our chief technology officer in the district for this is 17 years. Brian and I actually worked together. Elgen can thank me. I'm the one who got him the job again because I was in Georgetown. It's true. It's the truth. I worked with him in Georgetown and um when my father was superintendent here and he was looking for a CTO. I said, "You I I'm not going to say it. I hope you need to talk to this guy. He's amazing." And boy is he amazing. And he's he's done amazing things here in this district, but I've known Brian now. who's been here 17 years. Dennis and we worked together before that. Just um I can't say enough just about his character, not just the skills he brings to the job, but his relationships, his wisdom. We're
041going to miss that wisdom so much. And cabinet, he always knows we look to Brian. What's the history? So, I'm still gonna be calling you. Um he is he's just so valued. and we're gonna have a um we will be finalize the date to do a little retirement party as much as he did not want to do that and on the 10th of December but we'll send something out regarding that but this is his last meeting he's going to take some of his time and most of December I guess he won't be with us and so we wish Brian the absolute best his replacement it's Mr. David Grock who's here with us. He technically starts next month. So, we're going to do a big introduction with David next month. But, um, we wanted to spend
042this evening just really focused on on Brian and you get to come up to the stage. We'll shake our hands as you walk across. Come on. Come on. Oh, here's a picture. Okay. Thank you, Brian. >> Thank you, Dr. Next. President's report. We held our first safety and security meeting last week. was very insightful, very in informative, got a lot of information. Uh, of course, these three meetings that we're required to have every year. So, this first uh of those three um talked about some of the fencing that we've got and things are going well with that. We do monthly audits uh to make sure that we're in compliance with the doors and all that. But the most exciting thing is this is going to get over about the webbased sentinel p which it is
043it is it is a game changer I I would say uh it's a behavioral threat assessment uh programming that documents uh students and and I feel like it's more of a uh proactive versus a reactive uh they're trying to identify behaviors before they get to that level and this is just not instituted and it's statewide so that everybody is doing the same thing, same information. And so you have a student that's transferring in and they they've had some issues that easily can grab that information and provide it to to the district and vice versa. So I think that's I think that's very important. I think be a very helpful tool because we want to prevent as much as possible. Number one, we want to help those students uh just you know not to reach those
044crisis levels but there are some issues and there are some things in place that identified that with that the meeting was good and we're preparing but for the next you didn't have anything you want to add did you Mr. Okay, thank you. All right, next item is the consent agenda. And let me apologize in advance because I've heard from several of you about the length of the agenda. So we'll try to make sure that doesn't happen again. But it is pretty lengthy. Uh so the consent agenda is as follows. Approve tax report refunds and adjustments for October 2025. Approve financial statement and budget amendment listed for October 2025. Approve investment report for October 2025. Approve budget amendments. Uh a fine arts teacher professional development BA2 project. Approve purchases greater than $50,000. A library material procurement.
045Uh approve staffing recommendations. Approve allocation of votes for Bastrop Central Appraisal District Board of Directors. Approve allocation of votes for Travis central appraisal district board of directors. Approve allocation of votes for Lee Central appraisal district board of directors. Approve the teal alternative approval executive director of technologies to David de Brock. Approve targeted assistant plans for Washington Elementary, Elvin Elementary and Elvin intermediate school. Approve adoption of Tazby local policy update 126. Approve competitive seal proposal CSP 2026-03 admin HVAC replacement. Approve competitive seal proposed CSP 2026-04 Elgen Elementary mechanical electrical and plumbing MEP upgrades phase three. Approve Legacy Oak Middle School waterline easement. Approve Legacy Oak Middle School electric line easement. Approve CTE culinary program guaranteed maximum price GMP number one. And then finally, approve the 2025 Elden ISD tax limit. Those are your consent agenda items.
046Any questions? >> I'd like to ask a question about the um approved for the task policy. I know we reviewed it in our workshop. And so what I want to know is or what I would like to suggest is that we approve the policy changes as they happen and not all at once so that we get an update as things are happening and they are implemented. So is that was that the plan for how we were going to uh implement policy changes uh from TASBY for that 126? So with um and across the state, every district is having to approve this policy because the legislative changes which is the most massive that we've had ever in the history. So um you do that in in one policy approval and so we can we approve that
047policy. We continue to implement the policy as we move forward with administrative regulations that we build in response to the policy. Much of what we've already been doing because we've known the legislative changes that have been coming since July since they were um passed into law. So, um, TASBY just released their their policy to all of the school districts across the state of Texas as this packet in this one update to be approved together. And then, so we approve the policy and then admin, we continue to work through that policy with what we went over a checklist today in the workshop. And those are kind of the regulations and things that we will then put in place to respond to policy that has been approved. >> Okay. My recommendation is that as we are if
048we are approving that policy tonight that we continue to receive the implementation plans as they are coming up pertaining to that policy and not just a a fly over. >> Yes. Absolutely. Any other questions as it relates to the consent agenda? >> So, we don't have the specific verdage that's going to be in the new policy. >> It's in there. So, we can look at what's going to be scratched and then what's going to replace it. >> Yes. in the that's what you have >> the admin rags that the admin rags that I'm referring to would be you have the policy but then there are things that we will develop as administrative to to implement the policy that is in place the admin rigs that we follow through with which are different those are not
049approved by the board specifically admin rags support the policy that the board approves Okay, there a motion. >> I moved >> motion by Mr. Moss. >> Second by Mr. Bus. Any other questions? All in favor motion, please raise your hand. Any opposers? Motion passes 70. Thank you. Next, we have information items. Uh, number one, priority three update, community engagement and partnerships. Miss Emily White standing in for Al. >> And I will just preface it by saying and thank you to Emily for standing in. We have Mr. Rodriguez who's on the city council and may have have a meeting as well this evening. But um as always, we have a priority update at every board meeting and this is to support our scorecard work. And so we will give updates on this priority and priority three
050of community engagement and partnerships and some of the work that we've been doing in the district moving forward. So Emily White, thank you. >> Thank you. Like she said, I'm Emily White, communications coordinator. Thank you very much, President Mitchell, Superintendent Ritter, trustees, cabinet members for allowing me to um update you on our priority three scorecard. Um we have just a few things we're going to go over with you tonight. We're going to go over um we're going to touch on each of the three pri sections of our priority three. Um and then we're going to come back to you in the spring and give you the balance of that. So um I'm looking forward to telling you about it. First 3.1 is the parent satisfaction and engagement. As you can see, we are u making
051significant progress and that is ongoing. Um we're going to talk first about the website. For website development, our goal is for elgenisd.net to be the hub of district communications for people to find things both come to it and then going from it. for our district communications. We know that the website is often the very first impression um that people have of the district for new families, community members, for job seekers. And so to that end, we want to make sure that information is updated regularly, especially in the news and headlines section, uh Dr. Rutder's column, and then the gallery on the front page, which is a scrolling gallery. As you've seen, you can see pages like the welcome to EISD page, which was posted this summer. Um, that is really helpful and it provides a
052really convenient navigation with simple icons for parents and people who are new to the district. they can click on all the main sort of most frequently um clicked on um items that people are looking for and they can find it really call it a find it fast page and so Connie Nunees was really helpful in creating that page and um we appreciate that work on the horizon for the website we have a few goals that we're working toward right now like to establish one consistent interior page design with consistent branding in uniform font and colors. And by interior page, I mean the page that from the homepage or from a landing page you click to to get to what you're really looking for. We want to make sure that those are all uniform and similar
053and very consistent. We want to also establish, and we're doing this with the help of the technology department, which is really our partner with the website. We want to make sure that we have calendars that are shared and updated regularly so that when a campus or a department has an event is posted to the district calendar or to their campus calendar. And so it's all a calendar would have relevant dates for their um specific location or department. We also want to make sure that our staff directories are updated and that they are easy to um create and will update automatically overnight. Something we can do and make that automated. Uh we want to make sure that that is easy to find and then we want to also make sure that that's not a burden for
054our campuses to do. So we want to make sure that that's something that we can take care of on our end pretty quickly and um so that people can find who they're looking for. Excuse me. And we also want to make sure that our campus websites become more campus related and have campus information versus just a sort of regurgitation of district information so that when our elementary parents or our intermediate parents and so forth are looking for their information, they can find that. But we want to make sure that that does not present a burden to our principles or to their campus staff. We want to make do it in a way that is very helpful to them but does not make it um difficult for them. Moving on to social media. New this fall
055we established our Elgen is or Elgen Texas ISD um um Instagram. So I hope you're following it. If you're not make sure to add the Texas so you're not following another state's Instagram. We've also um established a routine um social media schedule and this helps keep the social media algorithm momentum keeping it helps keep it going, keeps it fresh and um it provides more opportunities for interaction. We know that Meta is the owner of Facebook and Instagram. Mark Zuckerberg is the owner as you know. Um and so we there is a a method to that algorithm. It's basically the algorithm is basically a a system for ranking what gets seen in your Facebook or your Instagram feed. And in meta, a like is one point, a comment is seven points, and a share is 14
056points. And when that all gets calculated together based on your personal feed and your interests and the people you're friends with and the people we're friends with, um we're associated with all of those things get ranked together. And so we want to make sure um that what we're putting out is positive, celebratory, and upbeat. And so the minimum we can do, we want to at least be posting once a day on both platforms. And so we've made a little schedule. It seems a little silly, but it's helpful to make sure that that algorithm is really responsive. And so we do on Monday, we do hashtag. We always have a hashtag. And we also also always include in our post and our caption for our post our annual um hashtag which Dr. Ruter has assigned which
057is um EID together. And so we have in case you missed it, Monday, teacher Tuesday, Wildcat Wednesday, uh TBT, which is throwback Thursday, and then on Friday we post our district newsletter. And so that's our schedule. That doesn't mean that's all we're posting. We're posting things all the time. Sometimes we may not post this if the tone is inappropriate. For instance, on Veterans Day, that was all we were going to post. We're not going to post other things on Veterans Day. But um that's basically our baseline. Also new this fall, we had a graphic designer professionally design branded social media templates that correlate with that calendar so that we could make it really easy to just pop graphics in, put data into those templates and then put them on social media so they look really
058professional and striking, colorful, photo centered. Uh we want to make sure that we make that available also to our campuses and so we did that. We created that in Canva and then we put them in team Canva accounts so that our campus um campuses could use that and we shared that with them. And then we also are making sure that we when we are cross-osting or when we have the opportunity to cross post we do. So we will either tag a campus or a business or a partner or um community member if we can um then we will because that really ups the the reach for us. Um and so like in the example in this on this slide is we tagged Athena manufacturing for um when we published something about the welders. So just
059looking at some data we looked at the measurement period of the last year from November 9th to November 9th. We have uh just over 3,200 followers. Um we've probably gone up to probably like 3230 by now. Um but you can see um who is following us in terms of age and gender. Um we are you know Facebook and Instagram both typically it's mainly women. Um nothing against men but um it's mainly women who are following um and who are participating basically. Um, and I think over time you will see that number probably move up into the 50s and 60s as our my generation probably. Well, I'm in the 45 to 54, but that's probably going to bump up as social media continues because of when it actually started and came on the scene. And so,
060you can see that that's our main group. um younger the younger crowd generally will be on Instagram and obviously other social media um outlets like Tik Tok or Snapchat, but we do not have Tik Tok or Snapchat and we probably won't. So you can see who is following us, where they're from. Um predominantly we do not we don't really have that many um international followers, mainly from here in Elgen and in the Austin area. But it we do have a few people that are just a small amount of international folks. If you have friends in other countries, invite them to follow. Um, our Facebook views, we had about 1.5 million or just almost 1.5 million. And I put the definitions up there. I won't read them to you. Um, but you know, we're talking about
061views and interactions. Views is is a little bit different. when you're talking about interactions, you're talking about when people are commenting and liking and talking back to you. Not in a negative way, but chatting with you or whatever um on your post. And that's really what you want is to have somebody chitchat with you or whatever. We are working on that. We need to do a better job of that. I do I need to do a better job of that. Um but we um we are working on that, but we have seen an increase of that over the last year. Um, moving on, we've had um just at we probably now have just over 700 followers, new followers on Facebook and we've had a a nice increase on Facebook reach. We would like to see
062that number go up even more. But those that's the unique number of people the unique people who have um looked at your content or interacted with your content and they can be your followers or not. So, and then Instagram. I went ahead and put the numbers of Instagram up here. Um, even though we haven't had it very long, but we have a a decent amount. We have about 152 followers. So, we'll work on growing that between now and the end of the year. We've also worked on our Wildcat Den uh newsletter, which goes out on Friday. We did design a new header for that um with our professional graphic designer. Um, our platform is S'more, which is wonderful. It we can put it into um to school status. Forgot the name was for a second.
063School status. Um, we can embed that directly into the email. So, when you get it in email or on your phone by email, it's right there. You don't have to click on anything. It's right there. Um, if you get it by text, it will be a link. And it's it's wonderful. It's a great um it's a great way to get communication. And then you can forward that if you want to. It's great positive information. We want to make sure that we are basically flooding our community with positive information and data so that um you know we're drowning out any possible negative information and that's uh that's our policy. Um so it's more accessible to readers and then we also post that on social media as well. our campus newsletters. We are also trying to envision
064a a a sort of a new era with campus newsletters. We have um our principles, I will tell you, I've I've been in a couple of school districts and our principles have they do an internal newsletter every week and it is so they are each so chalk full of information that they send to their teachers every week, their whole staff. And it's full of here's where you it's basically here's what you need to know for the next week. Here's where you need to be. here's what you need to be on top of. It's full of all these positive reminders. Here's pictures. It's it's chalk full of really good stuff. And I have never seen anything like that on any other campus that I've been a part of. It's incredible. So, they've done a great job.
065And they do also do some external communication as well, particularly on social media. And if you have some external newsletters, we're working also um we did a training. We're trying to sort of um I guess sort of put it all together in a branded way to meet some of those branding goals to do some of sort of a similar thing as we're doing with the district with the um external campus newsletters. And we created some templates for them to just drag and drop some of that sort of uh idea that we've done. And we again we gave them the Canva account. We talked about some of their our plans of the website with them and they can start using that anytime they want, but it's available to them anytime. But um they plenty going on
066so we know that they're working hard and we want to be available to them anytime. We also um work with Dr. Rutder when she finishes her column every month. She does a great job. It's it's always um something that is issue based that we're working on in the district. A great example was the one about attendance in September. She had another one in October that was excellent. Um she does it monthly. We put it in the news and headlines section and on the scrolling gallery at the top of the website. It's also on her web page and then we um embed it in the newsletter following a board meeting. So you'll see another one this Friday. We just we feel really passionate that um we're just very lucky to have a superintendent that wants to
067extend ourel and communicate with the community and stay on top of the issues that matter in our community. Not every superintendent does that. Not to be, you know, brown nosing or anything, but it's true. But it's true. um teach is a new um communications um functionality that we have brought on board this year. It we know you know if I have a um a 15-year-old if he brings home a flyer a paper flyer I will never see it ever again. Um I might have seen it in his Friday folder as a little boy but after sixth grade it's out. So Peach Dart solves that problem. And if you have a campus uh a member of a campus personnel or anybody in the community, you can upload your flyer and it will go directly to the
068date that you selected for the campus that you selected. And it's it's a great tool. It comes directly to your phone or your email or however you want to get it. And that's how our parents are communicating is on their phones. So, um it's been a great thing. We also have a Peachar flyer board. It's embedded on every website and then we take that link and we put it in the district newsletter as well. So everybody should be able to see it. We also have a a nonprofit opportunity for um our community members as well. Okay. Community uh 3.2 is community satisfaction and engagement. We're also making great progress and that is ongoing here. 3.2.1 2.1 is to continue the imple implementation of the marketing and communication plan to highlight our schools. And I'll just
069hit on the goals of that plan. And the goals of that plan are that Elgen ISTD will develop and promote positive internal and external relations through effective communication. And that means that we will support student achievement, support district staff and faculty, build public trust, strengthen Elgen ISD's brand, continuously improve communication with a district's internal and external audiences, and these are the prior priorities that we think define the vision for all our communications activities that occur in Elgenistd. Moving on to our partnerships with business and other governmental agencies which is 3.3. Um we also making great progress here. Um Dr. Reer is going to talk just briefly about the foundation's progress and then I'll talk about their events. our Elgen Education Foundation. Um really as we look back in the history, I mean our this district
070has had strong foundation history. Um with COVID just everywhere across the state of Texas, people saw that it was affected and impacted. Um we came back and the last several years have focused on re-energizing and revitalizing the Elgen Education Foundation. We have a phenomenal board um that have we we also used we had someone who came in as a consultant to help us with ideas and ways to move this forward and helped model this after successful foundations across the state and we've seen an incredible you'll hear about some of these events and the fundraising and things because really the focus of a foundation should be how are how is the foundation supporting the learning and the things that are happening in the school district um through supporting teachers and educators, staff, supporting administrators, but really
071supporting the learning of our students and some really amazing ways. So, going through that revitalization, getting a lot of great folks into excited about it with some amazing ideas. Um Cherish White, who was up here a minute ago, she is on our board. She's phenomenal. Noble Smith is our president. So, just lots of phenomenal ideas, guys. And um working forward with many of them are are parents in the district. Um but listening to staff and also Al Rodriguez serves as the liazison for the foundation and helps us grow that foundation to strengthen the partnerships and again another focus is building the business partnerships across across our community as well. Well, we have several events that the foundation um supports and one is the acade academic recognition banquetment scheduled in the spring. The top 10 is
072announced. We have a sponsor appreciation and a spring fundraising kickoff. The spring event I don't think I can announce quite yet, but it's going to be really cool. It's going to be so fun. Um and then of course you know already about the Top Golf event in September. Um it was a record-breaking event. We raised $70,000 over $70,000 and that is a history making um event for um EISD and EF. Emily, if I may add also um I know a lot of people in the probably in the audience are really curious about our teacher grants from the education foundation. I'll say that Cherish W has actually been uh leading that uh charge with that committee and we should have a date scheduled here pretty quickly about whenever we're going to go out and award those
073teacher grants. So keep an eye out for that date. Yeah. And you can come along with us. Um and then of course our last part of this um 3.3 is uh 3.3.3 is to strengthen the relationships and processes and protocols with business and governmental partners. Um I won't read these off, but you're very all you're all very well aware of all of them, but these are all the the groups a lot of the groups. This is certainly not all but all of the groups that we have partnerships with and that we continue to work on strengthening those and we are looking to create even more partnerships as we go along especially as Dr. mentioned as we build those sort of future ready um partnerships for um the CTE and STEMbased opportunities where we can um
074work with someone like Samsung or um you know whoever that we can you know work together to to bring opportunities straight in front of our kids and and um you know whatever the partnership might be. If it's financial great if it's not that's okay too. So, we want to make sure that we're bringing the cutting edge technology right in front of our students. So, um, are there any questions? >> Great job. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Well, thank you. I appreciate your time. >> Thank you. >> Next item. priority for update on construction projects including 2021 and 2024 B uh bonds and update to long range long range facility plan. >> Uh good evening uh President Mitchell trustees Dr. Ritter I'm excited to give you an update on these projects once again this evening. Um
075there you can see a nice nice view of the auditorium. glad that that project is completed and we're already uh scheduling events uh in that facility. I think that'll be a really nice addition for the community. Um 2021 bond, this is really the the only large project we still have remaining uh under the 2021 bond. I'm glad to report that we're really making uh quite a bit of progress on this. This this photo is about seven or 10 days old and it already looks uh significantly different. Um, a lot of the roof insulation is on uh the building. Uh, the erection of that uh steel building is uh pretty much complete. Um, in the bottom left you'll see the metal studs there. A lot of those have already been um installed there so they can
076start the exterior wall framing and sheathing. So that u fairly small building but it's going up quickly. Uh that building will be used to house a lot of our um staff members from the uh office there for the transportation department. Our transportation director and his office staff will eventually move out to that facility. Um on the left there, that fuel tank pad, while that doesn't look uh super impressive, that's a really important part of this project. Right now, we've got um an underground a small underground tank at our existing facility that uh we cannot take full-size fuel delivery. So that that often puts our our team in a bind because we have to take small undersized loads. With this addition at this uh facility, we'll be able to take full size uh you see a
077tanker truck diving down the road. We'll be able to take full uh 8,000gallon loads of of diesel. That obviously expands uh the uh the timeline between when we have to refuel that on-site tank. Um it allows our fueling capacity to be increased there on site. uh right now we just uh really have to work at that. So uh while it again doesn't look really impressive but there's some additions on this site that'll really help out scheduling uh with our staff and as we increase the number of buses on site these things are really important. So glad to see this project moving ahead. We are still coordinating with adjacent developers and text dot regarding um FM100 expansion. So just uh keep that um on your radar. We know that is coming as part of this project
078and as part of the project for the adjacent developers as well. Um priority maintenance projects. Some of these are um just wrapping up and some of them have a little bit of work to do. But Nad and High School flooring Naid has some of that flooring that has already been done but uh we anticipate making a really good push here during Thanksgiving to get a large portion of that completed as well as the foyer there at Elgen High School. um HBAC projects districtwide. Uh most of those are at substantial completion and we're working through punch list and closeout documents. Um getting lean releases, those types of things and working with our commissioning agent to wrap up. Um also were some recent improvements at the a barn that were on our priority maintenance list under the
07921 bond. We added water heater and piping there to allow uh to wash the animals. um often that uh really the only time that show season happens is in December, January and it uh leaves them washing animals with cold water. So that's a nice addition to that facility. Um I'm glad to report we've got some great progress on the fiber optic upgrade. Um we recently uh got across Union Pacific and Cat Metro. Uh both railroad crossings are complete. Um the new fiber is in place. Uh both ends connected. Uh so fiber to BTW is is complete. We just need the contractor to uh test before making that operational. So they'll work to get in late this week. We'll work with our technology team uh to give the green light on when we make that transition
080to to a hard line for BTW. But that'll be uh that'll be a first. That's been a long time coming. I know uh Brian might might get to, you know, flip the switch, if you will, right before he leaves. That's >> Yeah, he he's worked on that for for many years, so I know he's excited to to see that. >> And uh and and the the bore under 290. Uh they actually started that this week. So permitting after we uh resubmitted the permit, it actually went pretty quickly. So they've already initiated that bore under 290 this week. Uh they've pulled fiber at the other end. they've already pulled into um the uh server room or the MDF room uh there in Trinity Ranch. So, they anticipate uh anticipate making those connections pretty quickly uh and
081anticipate wrapping up this project the first week in December. So, um tying up things pretty quickly there. Um as we look at upcoming projects, uh some of the things we're in early design on now is replacement of playgrounds at all of the older elementaryaries, PTW, NY. Um, all of those schools have uh playgrounds that that have some age on them. So, we're looking to replace those. That would be a summer 2026 project. Uh, bleacher repairs at the old stadium here next door. Uh, that's something else that was on the facility assessment list. Um, roof repair or replacement at technology building. Again, Brian would like to see that. Uh, there are some leaks at at that building. Uh, replacement of hands sinks throughout Elementary. Uh that's something our our maintenance team has struggled with the past
082couple of years but was on facility assessment. We're looking to get those if those come in that will happen this uh Christmas break. Uh we're we're hoping those arrive early December and we can schedule that during Christmas break. Um and then on consent agenda tonight uh there was the approval of uh the next phases of Elgen Elementary HVAC project and both admin HVAC project. Um, all in all, this uh takes us down to roughly 3% remaining in the 2021 bond. So, we we've gotten a lot of projects wrapped up. You know, when we started this bond in the middle of COVID, we were really worried. Uh we started with the larger projects, the high school, the elementarymentaries, and those high dollar value, we were worried that we wouldn't be able to uh get all of
083these done. And then, not that we're finished by any stretch, but uh we're getting really close to uh checking most of the boxes on these property maintenance projects. So, we're excited to see that we've got some interest earnings left, but we're down to about the last 3% um of funds remaining and and we'll work with administration and campuses to see of those remaining projects. Uh what are the biggest priorities, but we'll continue going um until we've exhausted all those funds. Uh moving to 2024 bond. Excited with the progress on this project. Again, these these pictures are about a week or 10 days old. If you drive by there, you you know this this site looks different already. Uh the entry road that that curved road going in there, most of that is is got the
084concrete paving in place already. Uh so this crew out here is making really great progress. Uh they've got a section of the building pad. They poured that last night overnight. Um underground utilities are continuing to go in. Um they do have more what we'll call site paving. uh is really related to the driveways on this project, but uh storm lines continue to go in. There's a lot of underground storm lines on this project and underground utilities, plumbing, electrical will continue. Uh but these uh these workers just continue working the way across that building pad uh putting in grade beams and footers so they can continue to pour each section of the building pad over the coming weeks. uh some while not all of the project is is ahead, some of these building pads are a
085month ahead. So, uh they're making great progress um really being aggressive with this, but uh you know, keeping quality in check. So, we're excited to see much of the progress on that site. U so we we hope to we just spoke today. We hope to get the board out there in the coming months maybe for a site visit. Uh but we're really excited about this project overall. >> One quick question. Yes sir. >> That was what 150 acres take for >> um all in all. Yes sir. About 140. >> And then how much how many acres of dirt work if they got there? That'd be 40 50 acres of 100. >> Um I would have to go back and look at the site plan. I I I would hate to say right off without taking
086a look at the site plan. >> Just curios. >> Yeah. I know we initially modeled a mo a middle school high school and and we've uh left the remaining land for the high school with with plenty of room to spare. >> Yeah, it's I mean it looks like a lot of work. That's why I was just wondering how this very thick bush. >> So you can see in the in the larger picture on the right if you look back past the building pad, you can see the oval for what's eventually going to be the uh going to be the field or the practice field. And then of course we'll have a little tennis courts next to that. But, uh, there's still quite a bit of land back there, uh, behind that reserve for the high
087school. So, this this site's not exactly a perfect rectangle. Uh, there's a little ear to the right of it, uh, to make up that entire 140 acres. So, there's quite a bit left on athletic improvements. Back on the high school site, um, you can see in that top left uh, picture there, the curbs are um, being formed up. That's for the outfield fence for baseball. Um demolition of press box that's happened already. New press boxes should be here by the end of the month. Uh chemical injection. Uh that's really been the the long uh the long part of this scope on this project with that uh expansive clay. That's been the slow part. Uh but good news, the turf arrived started arriving today. Uh all of it won't show up in one day, but uh
088turf did start arriving today. Uh right now softball is a couple of days ahead of schedule on soil injection. Baseball is a few days behind schedule. So um all all in all the contractors still optimistic that they're going to make that uh January date uh for schedule completion. We'll be able to get u both baseball and softball starting on their schedule. Uh they do have, you know, obviously a little bit of work to do between now and then, but uh we we should start seeing the uh outfield defense go up soon. They do have a couple more areas that they have to reinject on baseball, but then they'll move back over to tennis and softball and get things moving again. But this will be a really nice project. Um, we did have uh the lights
089for the tennis court also show up today. So, a lot of these materials beginning to show up and and this uh site will look different uh in the coming weeks really quickly. >> Yes, sir. >> Questions? We're going to have new codeboards. >> Yes, sir. Yes, sir. That is one of the things that's also been ordered. Um the timeline is tight on those. Uh so the existing scoreboards we're leaving intact until those new scoreboards are in place. Um so a couple of these, you know, as we bid alternates, if you remember early on in the project, there were several alternate scoreboards, the press boxes, some fencing, scoreboards were one of the alternates that were fortunately we were able to afford, but the timeline was very compressed. So u scoreboards are coming. They're on order. Uh
090but the timeline is tight. So, what we've decided is that we'll leave those existing scoreboards in place. We don't want to demolish those until the new scoreboards are here. So, um just in case for whatever reason they may get delayed, we'll have a working scoreboard and then should they have to swap it out in week two or something like that, we may have to do that. But our goal right now is certainly to try to have the new ones in place um when the ball season starts. But you know, worst case scenario, uh we'll have those uh existing ones in place and then we'll swap at the first opportunity. >> And the other question was what about the uh the press boxes? What's going to be different than than the ones that we demolished? >>
091So the the newer press boxes will be larger. Um right, the uh the old ones uh they were they were very tight. Um they didn't have great accessibility. Um and they over the years they had seen a lot of water intrusion. Uh so they had some u some mildew and things in there that needed to be addressed. Um these new ones will obviously be a little bit larger but now have better accessibility from the stands. U obviously wanted to take care of that uh the water intrusion situation. Um this gave us an opportunity to expand those. We'll also run fiber uh to these press boxes uh with the cameras and the streaming of live video for our um baseball and softball. Uh this gives us an opportunity to run fiber to our press boxes uh
092so we can have a faster internet connection uh when we stream those video those videos for the internet. Um press box stadium press box. Now, uh we did award guaranteed maximum price last month. We've issued notice to proceed to that contractor. Uh we've had our initial kickoff meeting and subsequent uh construction meetings. We've started that series of meetings. While we don't see obviously construction happening right now um in the background, our general contractor is working through procurement, subcontractor buyout, um going working with their contractors on background checks, all of those types of things uh to get started. Uh but uh could be as early as this week, we'll start seeing construction fencing go up around the site. Uh we're working with our district staff to empty out any contents from that facility. Um you know,
093furniture, uh electronics, those types of things to to allow the contractor to go ahead and get in there and start demolition as soon as possible. Uh so we're excited to see them on site this month. Um it's going to be a really tight schedule, but we do anticipate completion next fall for football. uh we'll work to get uh the visitor stands utilized for the upcoming uh track and soccer seasons um while the construction on the homeside stands is uh is being undertaken for the next 8 to 10 months and the homestead. So, I'll I'll give an update on this project and then I'll also um just step you through a couple of slides related to a uh long range plant update for this project. Um with the guaranteed maximum price approval tonight, uh this allows
094us to get started on long lead items, um equipment, um as with some of the other projects, but also some of the demolition and rough in for various trades. We do expect a guaranteed maximum price to come back for award in January. That would be for the remainder of the project. And of course, then our goal would be to get this project completed by next summer. So again, a fairly small project, but it is going to have a pretty tight schedule. Uh but we're excited about this project. Um there is a uh PDD revision uh that it actually went to the city tonight. This was on the city council um agenda. It was just it wasn't necessarily a vote, but something that just went to them similar to what I'll I'll show you tonight. Just
095had to be presented to them for a revision, allowing us to make a change in the way this facility was used as compared to what Circle Brewery is using it for in the past. So, I'll now walk you through just a couple of slides related to long-range facility plan for this facility. Um, TEA school facility standards requires that we have a long range facility plan um that's updated at least every five years for every facility in the district. We went through this process when we did the 2021 bond. So um all of our facilities or facility types were really already covered uh by this plan with the exception obviously of the homestead which wasn't purchased at the time. Uh there's really only four criteria that touch on um in one of these uh long range
096facility updates, instructional programs, campus administration, uh safety and security standards, and then site analysis. Uh that's the three the four main parts of of this plan. Um instructional programs, whether it's a middle school, a high school, or a CTE campus like this, uh you just address uh the programs that'll be in that facility. So here on the top left you can see uh this campus will be converted to serve students in in 9 through 12. It'll be a secondary campus to include CTE culinary arts uh lab and a culinary arts classroom. Um part of the plan that you look into is to address history of capital improvements on this campus. For us there was no history of of capital improvements uh during our ownership of campus. Following up with campus information, you look at enrollment
097projections. Um, and then also functional capacity. We think projected you could feasibly have up to 200, but ideally um 30 students um in a class in a classroom or in the lab setting would be ideal. And then TEA safety and security standards. Uh we won't really dive deep into this, but the idea is that the project um is completed and fully uh complies with Texas Administrative Code. As uh uh President Mitchell mentioned tonight, there are a lot of rules related to safety and security. So on a project like this, uh this would relate to the way our doors lock and function. It might relate to um numbering the outside doors, uh window film, safety and security film on certain doors, those types of things. So, uh there's just a checklist that we go through to
098make sure that um each of those things are addressed as we design this uh this facility with our architects and engineers. Um and then lastly, site overview. Uh though the print is pretty small, we identify parking areas, uh driveways, drop off areas, and then adjacent facilities um for the overall site. Um and then a floor plan. You can see there just the main areas of facility. um a a uh facility plan like this doesn't have to be voted on, but uh TEA facility standards just say that this plan has to be presented to the board and then ultimately delivered to our design team for incorporation into the project. So um that's what we have done here tonight just as part of the overall project update. Any questions about that? Okay, just compliance just checking the
099boxes. All right. Um, and lastly, facilities project DAP portables. Uh, just a quick update. Uh, we work to get the, uh, exterior inspection rescheduled with City of Elgen. We hope to do that within the next couple of weeks. Uh, fiber has been pulled, uh, into the portables now from Elgen Elementary. Interior cameras have been installed. Uh, the flooring you heard about last month has been ordered. Uh, we expect that to be installed within the next couple of weeks. Um, again, we've got the the remainder of the furniture just waiting to be installed and our goal will be to uh to move in uh during Christmas break. We've just got a few minor things left and we'll button up this project. Questions? >> I just have one question. >> Yes, sir. >> Related to this at
100the intermediate school, what is that little approval at the back? Um I I can't say that I know. I I might have to ask our maintenance department. Maybe they're working on something. >> Got a circle green cone. >> I'll I'll follow up with our maintenance department. Maybe that's a maybe that's a project they're working on, but I'll I'll I'll find out and let you know. >> Yes, sir. >> On our auditorium, is it completely done? No punch list things up. >> No, they are still working through punch list. Uh but it is it is usable. So we've got uh uh our staff is uh in their daily. They've got students in the tech theater class in their daily. Uh so they're they're using it. They've occupied the space. Obviously not the the seating area, but
101the the scene shop where they host uh uh the students and and building the scenes and work them uh through that tech theater class. They're they're in there. Uh but uh but yes, there's on a facility like that, there are still some punch list and and generally the the site itself, there are still some civil items, some grading and things like that that we're working through as well, but over overall the facility is is fully in use. >> Thank you, sir. We're going to close session. Wish everybody happy holidays, wonderful Thanksgiving. So, it is 8:34 p.m. and the board will reconvene recess at the close session and reconvene is allowed under section 071 and through 551. 1084, the Texas government code to discuss purchase, exchange, lease or value of real property. Just government code 551.072.
102Shall a final action final decision or final vote be required in the opinion of the school board with regard to any matter considered in such closed session or meeting? Then the final action final decision of vote shall be either in the open meeting covered by the notice of one convening of the public meeting or at a subsequent public meeting of the school board thereof at sh. The board will reconvene into open meeting at this time. During the closed meeting, only the items that appeared on the agenda were discussed. No final action, no final decision or vote was taken during the closed meeting. At this time, is there a motion to adjourn? I move motion by Mr. Miles, second by Mr. Baker. Any questions? All in favor of adjourning, respond by raising your hand. No opposes.
103It is 9:06 p.m.